Subway Conversation
by ChiefPam
Summary: Starts with an expansion of the Evan-Vincent conversation on the subway in ep 01x18 "Heart of Darkness" and then goes on from there, AU-style. There are a few things Evan needed to know. UPDATE: I'm thinking it'll be 3 parts altogether. Chapter 2 is up. Last and final chapter's just been uploaded!
1. Subway Conversation

A/N: I've written a lot of fanfic, but mostly for Lois & Clark. This is my first BatB ficlet, and quite a lot of it is taken directly from the episode "Heart of Darkness". I don't own the characters but the thoughts and some of the dialog is original to me. There were just a few things that I thought needed to be added, and then things shifted from there.

**Subway Conversation**

Found him. Finally. Vincent took a moment to fortify himself before confronting Evan. This was the man who'd kissed Catherine, who had "feelings" for her, the man who'd investigated cross-species DNA and signed up with Muirfield. He didn't like or trust Evan, but he didn't have to. This was about limiting the damage and shielding the woman he loved. He'd do far harder things than this for her.

Evan wasn't looking happy, looking somehow lost, staring at his phone. Vincent stepped forward quickly. "Don't even think about calling her."

Evan looked up in surprise as Vincent sat to face him. After a strained moment he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to stop you from getting Catherine killed, like you tried with me." He nodded towards Evan's hand. "They would have bugged your phone by now; you push "send" and they will track her down, and they will kill her."

Evan put his phone away. Good, he still cared about Catherine; Vincent could work with that.

"Now what? You gonna rip out my throat?"

Yeah, the man clearly believed all the vigilante crap. Never mind, it wasn't important what Evan believed about him. And, anyway… "Oh, it's tempting." he replied, only half joking. "But here's your other option. You're going to pick up my trail somewhere else, somewhere that Muirfield will follow. Somewhere you wanna live, where you can get lost, and never come back."

Evan was clearly shaken, but he rallied at that. "So that's it. I just abandon Catherine to your so-called hands."

So-called? Never mind. Focus. "You have no idea of the people you just signed up with, do you? They are dangerous."

"And you're not? The vigilante who's killed countless New Yorkers. And Catherine's better off with a menace like you?"

Vincent smiled slightly, remembering. "She seems to think so."

"She's just fascinated by you. That's the only reason why she's with you."

Okay, the insults were getting a little annoying. "Or maybe she's in love with me." It felt so good to say that out loud.

Evan's eyes narrowed. "You really think dragging her into your world, forcing her into some twisted relationship with a monster, is protecting her?"

In spite of everything, Vincent laughed a little. "Dragging? Forcing? You don't know Catherine very well. Look, I actually agree with you. I tried to keep her out, I tried pushing her away. For months. But she's a stubborn woman, and she… kept coming back."

"No, you're to blame," Evan insisted. "You knew that Muirfield were after you, but you put Catherine right in the middle of it all. You put her life on the line, just so you could selfishly be with her."

There was more truth in that than Vincent was comfortable with, but that wasn't the point. He needed the man's cooperation to shield Catherine. "Are you really so naïve as to think this black ops agency is just going to let her go? I know them. I know they're going to ask you how you found me." He paused, then upped the pressure. "How long do you think you'll last before you give up her name?"

"I would never—"

"They have killed men ten times stronger than you. When push comes to shove, you will break, and then who's the threat to her?"

Evan swallowed. "There won't be a threat, once you're gone."

"Evan, they will not stop with killing me." Vincent sighed. "If I thought they would, I'd turn myself in. I *have* turned myself in."

"Oh really? So how is it that you're here, then?"

"Catherine. She and JT, they just wouldn't accept—"

"Hang on, JT? JT Forbes? You know him?"

"We grew up together."

That seemed to shock him. "Grew up?"

"What, you thought they made me in a petrie dish?"

Evan didn't reply, but the look on his face was almost comical. Vincent shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Catherine is all that matters, and if you'll cooperate with me, we can protect her. Come up with some story about how you spotted me that doesn't involve her."

"Why?"

Vincent frowned at the other man's puzzlement. "So they won't think she—"

Evan shook his head. "No, I mean why would she choose to be with you? What can you possibly have to offer her?"

"Honestly? I don't know." He'd asked himself the same thing, countless times. "I guess you'd have to ask her. But anything and everything I have is hers for the taking."

Evan was silent for a long moment, studying Vincent. "I want to talk to her."

That sounded like a good sign. "Can you stall Muirfield another day?"

"I—I don't know. I'm afraid they're watching me."

The subway train swayed, beginning to slow as they approached the next station. "This is my stop," Vincent said, standing and looking around warily. "Okay, you need to disappear now." He hesitated, then made his decision. "You can come with me; there's a way to get into the tunnels. You need to leave your phone."

Evan slowly nodded, then pulled a cylindrical object from his pocket, holding it carefully away from him. "I'll need to leave this, too. It's to call them. They might be able to track it."

Vincent took in a sharp breath. "Definitely keep that away from her."

Evan stood, leaving the object along with his phone in the corner of the seat. "Right." As they moved towards the door, he murmured, "All I ever wanted was to protect her."

Vincent didn't reply. He didn't like or trust Evan, but he didn't have to. If Muirfield came for him now, there'd be no obvious link to Catherine. But Tess had come around, and maybe Evan would, too. Between all of them, they'd do their best to protect the one person they all loved.

They exited the subway car and slipped through an access door, unnoticed in the crowd.

The End

(Please review if you'd like me to write more. Thanks.)


	2. Tunnel Conversation

Tunnel Conversations

Evan stepped into a maintenance tunnel, leaving behind the familiar subway station. Except that everything in his life was already in turmoil, in free fall; nothing was familiar. It was almost a relief to be somewhere he'd never been; he couldn't be expected to know anything about it. The monster – though he looked exactly like a man - was striding along, perfectly at home apparently.

"What am I to call you?" he asked, abruptly realizing that he didn't know the creature's name. If it had one.

The monster slowed, then turned to face him. "Hi. My name is Vincent Ryan Keller. Call me Vincent." He extended a hand.

It was a very normal looking hand. No claws at the moment.

Evan took a deep breath and shook Vincent's hand. "And I'm Evan Marks, though I suppose you already know that. Can't exactly say I'm pleased to meet you."

Vincent smiled a little. "Likewise. C'mon, let's go."

"Right." They resumed walking, and Evan studied the figure ahead of him. The creature – Vincent – did not look anything like what he'd imagined. If he hadn't seen it – him – jumping from the fifth floor to the street, he wouldn't have thought anything was off about him at all. Yet Evan knew that this could not be the whole story. He'd studied the DNA; it was not entirely human, and becoming less so. The cases he'd seen had indicated great speed and strength, and those lacerations had definitely been inflicted by claws.

Still, just knowing Vincent's name made him seem more human. His scientific curiousity began to surface. "So, if you weren't born this way, what happened?"

"Muirfield was experimenting," Vincent explained, not turning around. "Wanted to create super-soldiers. They gave us injections – they said it was vitamins, antibiotics, but actually it messed with our DNA. It heightened our senses and reflexes, but there were … side effects. And when the adrenaline kicked in, well, we were uncontrollable, so they gave orders to shut down the whole program. My whole squad was killed. It was just dumb luck that I survived."

"When did this happen?"

"2002, in Afghanistan."

"You were in the military?"

"Hadn't really planned to be." Vincent shrugged. "My brothers were firefighters. They were in the towers. I left med school and enlisted right after that."

Evan's head was spinning, trying to assimilate all this unexpected information. "So, you've lived with this cross-species DNA for a decade now?"

"Yeah. Mostly hiding out in that warehouse with JT."

"Except for the occasional prowl around the city," Evan pointed out acidly, reminded of the vigilante cases.

"Yeah, except for that," Vincent agreed, sounding somewhat grim. He didn't elaborate.

There didn't seem to be much more to say. Shortly after that, they emerged from the tunnel into a larger room that had a few old pieces of equipment installed. There were also some much newer boxes. A voice emerged from across the room, and a head came out from behind boxes. "V, where did we pack the… uh-oh."

"JT. I think you know Evan."

"You invited Evan? The dude who joined Muirfield and sent a kill squad after you?" JT threw a glance at Evan. "No offense."

Evan smiled tightly. "None taken."

"Yeah, well, he thought he was protecting Catherine," Vincent explained. "I went to talk to him, to explain."

"If I've made the wrong decision," Evan put in, "I want to rectify it."

"Good. Great." JT turned back to Vincent. "So first we bring in Tess, and now Evan? Why not invite the whole precinct? There's plenty of room. Except wait, there's a problem. It's hard to have houseguests when we don't actually, you know, have a house."

"Relax, JT. He just wants a chance to talk to Catherine, without Muirfield listening in. He already knew too much to be wandering around, anyway."

"This just keeps getting more complicated." JT threw up his hands and walked around the stack of boxes. "Remember those eight whole years we were able to lay low and stay out of trouble? Good times, good times."

Vincent was smiling, obviously unphased by the dramatics. "Yeah, listen, JT, I'm going to go find Catherine and let her know that Evan's safe and wants to talk to her." He turned towards Evan to add, "She's working now, I think, but as soon as she gets a chance she'll be down. In the meantime, you and JT can talk shop."

Without waiting for an answer, Vincent strode back out of the room, leaving Evan and JT standing there to stare at each other. After a moment, Evan shook his head. "When I think of all the lies you must have told me… oh, what's the use."

JT had the grace to look embarrassed. "Yeah, sorry about that. I just needed to do whatever I could to protect Vincent. I've been looking out for him for about a decade now; it's a hard habit to break. So, you want to sit? We've got some not-totally-uncomfortable places to sit. I don't know about you, but I could use a beer."

"That's the best idea I've heard yet today," Evan said, finding a sturdy-looking box to sit on. JT passed him a beer bottle, which reminded him of the previous occasion. "You were trying to warn me off Cat, weren't you, the other day? And you two stood in my morgue and pretended not to know one another!"

JT shrugged. "This past year has been kinda crazy."

Evan took a long drink. "But the eight years before that were quiet?"

"Mostly." JT sat and opened his own beer.

"So what changed?"

"Catherine found us." JT sounded disgruntled. "And she kept coming to visit. About gave me a heart attack when she first walked in on me and Vincent, cool as you please, and just said "hi" to the man who's supposed to be dead and thus *not* living with me. And then Vincent just said "hi" back. Turns out they'd met earlier in the day, but did V tell me that? No, he did not."

"On the subway, he…" Evan paused, the name still seeming strange. "Vincent said he'd tried to keep her out."

"He tried. God knows I tried. But she had all these questions about her mom, and then Vincent started helping her out on cases, and honestly, they couldn't keep away from each other. Doesn't keep him from regularly freaking out about putting her in danger, but she always talks him down. Stubborn woman."

Most of that news was unwelcome but not unexpected. Except for the first bit. "Questions about her mum? I knew she'd been murdered, but that was nine or ten years ago."

"Yep. Turns out, Mama Chandler was working with Muirfield, and they were cleaning up loose ends. They'd have killed Catherine, too, but Vincent stopped them. We've still got the newspaper clipping around here … somewhere. I think. Anyway, she didn't get a good look at him, just told people she'd been saved by a mysterious beast. They all thought she was nuts, of course."

"Nine years ago? They've known each other nine years? I'd thought this was a recent thing."

"Well, Vincent knew who she was, and unbeknownst to me, he was keeping tabs on her, but she had no clue until he tried doing CPR and left a fingerprint behind. Not to mention some of his DNA. I'm sure you remember that."

"I'd thought the mass spectrometer was broken. Made the department shell out for a new one."

"When you told Cat about the DNA sample, she got in contact with the FBI, thinking that it was related to her mom's case. Only really, she ended up talking to Muirfield. They tried to kill her. Three against one. She put one of them out of commission, but Vincent had to come in and take care of the other two for her. That's when she chased him down and figured out what'd happened all those years ago, that he'd been there."

"So she's been in danger all this time, and it was partly my fault." That was appalling, and it made Evan feel even more foolish for his late, scrambling efforts to protect her. "I accused Vincent of dragging her into this, but…"

JT shot him a sympathetic glance. "Yeah, no. She charged into it full steam. He could avoid her for a while, but she could still track me down at the university. And, like I said, he started getting involved in her cases."

"The art gallery," Evan mused, trying to remember.

"Among other things. I don't know details, never wanted to. But then she was showing up at our place, he was hanging out on her fire escape, and it just kinda grew. I got dragged into it when Vincent started having these black-outs, psychogenic fugue states."

Evan stared, his heart beginning to race. "Fugues? That sounds extraordinarily dangerous."

JT shrugged uncomfortably. "It wasn't good. I shouldn't have mentioned it."

"No, JT, I *need* to know. What happens when he… changes? He said that the program was shut down because they were uncontrollable. Has he ever… hurt Catherine?"

"Okay, fine. Normally, he only… changes during, um, moments of stress. If he's threatened, or someone else is. And I'm not gonna lie; he freaks me out sometimes. His face changes, his eyes glow, he gets stronger, he moves more like an animal. Oh, and the claws show up. He can barely speak, and yeah, not in total control. But even then, he only goes after the bad guys. And listen, Evan, I swear to you, he's never hurt Catherine. She's not even scared of him, and she's seen him at his worst."

Evan frowned, struggling to understand. "How… what happens?"

"I don't normally see it, but there was one time… she came to the warehouse, and he had sort of fugued out, recovering a suppressed memory and reliving an old fight. She had her gun out, but she just talked him down. He listened, and he came out of it. Me, I'd have tranqed him; I've got a tranquilizer gun for emergencies. She just… talked to him. And she brought him back."

"Has he… what about the fugues?"

"We figured out that it was a side-effect; Vincent recovered some memories of it happening to the other guys in his unit. Catherine's mom had been working on fixing that when the program was shut down. So we found Dr. Chandler's notes, and figured out how to synthesise a serum. Only we didn't have the DNA analyzer we needed, so that's when I sort of borrowed yours. Thanks, by the way."

Evan actually laughed at that. "So you were the mysterious intern that Tess saw."

"'Fraid so. You about gave me a heart attack when you showed up at the university wanting to partner up on the cross-species DNA thing. We could maybe work on it again, now, though. I've got lots of test results and notes from things we've tried over the years, and we have Dr. Chandler's notes. The serum helped V get some more control over himself but it's not even close to a cure."

Evan hesitated. It was a tremendous opportunity, but he had no idea what his future might hold. "Well, if you think you could promise *not* to contaminate my samples this time… perhaps we could."

"You got it. I really would like to have your perspective on some things; Vincent has a medical background but that only takes him so far."

"I'll need to get my notes…" He stopped, suddenly reminded of the elephant in the room. "I can't go back to my apartment, can I?"

"Not if the Evil Arches are looking for you. We'll figure something out." He grinned suddenly. "Maybe if you can't stay in New York, you could go work at… oh, say, a free medical clinic in Mexico."

Evan lifted one eyebrow skeptically at that non sequitur. "Right. Well, one day at a time for now, hmm?"

"If we had a secret club, that'd be the secret club motto." JT handed Evan a fresh bottle. "Welcome to our world."

The End

(of this part, anyway. I think Evan still needs to have that talk with Cat, don't you?)


	3. Rooftop Conversation

Chapter 3: Rooftop Conversation

Catherine settled into one of the patio chairs that graced the rooftop of her apartment building. Vincent moved another chair closer to hers, and sat next to her, reaching out to hold her hand. She looked at him. "You sure you're okay with Evan coming up here to talk?"

"Well, it's better than the tunnels; Muirfield knows about those. This is actually a pretty secure location."

"And are you okay with me talking to Evan?"

One side of Vincent's mouth twitched upwards as he smiled. "Yeah, I think so. I get to be in on the conversation this time, not watching from across the street. That helps."

She smiled back at him. "Well, considering you're likely to be the topic of the conversation, it seemed only fair to include you. Could be awkward though."

"Hey, it couldn't possibly be worse than that dinner with your sister."

She laughed. "Good point."

"I'll let you do most of the talking," he promised. "He's your friend; he'll believe you."

She leaned over to give him a brief kiss. At least, she'd intended it to be brief. But kissing Vincent was addictive and a short taste wasn't enough.

All too soon, Vincent broke the kiss, lifting his head and turning towards the door. "And here he comes."

She sighed and settled back into her chair as the door opened and Evan stepped out onto the roof, looking around uncertainly. He gave Cat a smile, and traded wary looks with Vincent as he sat across the table from them.

She smiled at him. "Hey, Evan. Thanks for coming."

"Well, talking with JT was nothing if not fascinating, but you are the person I really wanted to speak with." He took a deep breath, looking uncomfortable. "I'm realizing that I've misjudged the situation thoroughly. It's not enough to say, but I'm sorry."

Cat shook her head. "No, Evan, I'm sorry – it's my fault, really. I couldn't tell you things, before, and so you didn't have nearly enough information to work with. I know you meant well."

"Yeah," Vincent agreed. "From what you knew, things looked bad. And Muirfield probably lied to you. They do that."

Evan glanced at him, almost looking grateful for the concession. "They did, as a matter of fact."

"And there I was," Cat added, "lying to you, trying frantically to cover things up."

He smiled. "Well, there was that. You told me not to worry, but... I couldn't trust that."

"I guess not. I won't lie to you any more, though. Ask any questions you've got."

"Alright. There's really only one." He took a deep breath. "On the subway, I asked Vincent what he thought he had to offer you. He said he didn't know, and I'd have to ask you this. I just need to know why you've chosen him - what he's got to more than compensate for all the danger and death. I just can't understand it, and that bothers me. I don't really have the right to ask, but I'd like to know."

"You sure you want to hear it?"

"I'm sure I won't enjoy it, but I want to hear it anyway."

She shrugged a little, thinking of how to put this. "Where to start… I admire him tremendously. He's had such a hard time. Because of Muirfield, he's lost so much. He can never go home again, since technically he was killed in 2002. All things considered, that's not far from the truth. Sometimes he hates himself for what happens when he loses control. It would be so easy for him to stop caring, to turn cynical or become bitter. And yet, he still tries to do the right thing, to help people."

Vincent turned and gave her one of his intense looks. The one that said he wasn't sure if she was for real, and didn't want to know if she wasn't.

She smiled at him and squeezed the hand she still held. "This last decade, he's had a pretty one-sided relationship with the world in general. They ignore him, maybe accept his help, or they hunt him, but it's all taking. No one but JT would ever give anything back to him. I really wanted to give something back to him."

"You have definitely done that," Vincent said quietly.

She shivered happily, then turned her attention back to Evan. "He's funny, and sweet. He respects me. He listens to me. He understands me like nobody else, and there's just something about him that I respond to." And it didn't hurt that he was drop-dead gorgeous, most of the time anyway, but she didn't think Evan needed to hear that. "And he always protects me."

"Maybe, but … there wouldn't be so much to protect you against if it weren't for him. He puts you at risk."

She shook her head. "Evan, I'm a cop. I'm in danger all the time. Physical danger is part of the job. You guard against it, train, take precautions - but then when it happens, you deal with it. You can't let it stop you. And, I might point out that the worst thing that's happened to me this last year - when I was almost killed - was because of one of my cases, not because of anything related to Vincent."

Evan shifted uncomfortably, unable to argue with that.

She leaned forward, looking Evan straight in the eyes. "No, the biggest risk we're facing – the one that scares me the most – is that someone's going to take him away from me. Or that he'll take himself away. That I'll lose him. And the only way to avoid that kind of risk is to cut yourself off from everybody, never truly allow yourself to care for someone."

She laughed a little. "I should know; I did it for years. I dated bad boys – they were fun, but they never really mattered to me, so I wasn't risking anything. Vincent's got a little of that vibe going on, but he's so inherently decent, and generous, and kind, that he matters tremendously." She shrugged, settling back in her chair, looking sideways at Vincent. "I just couldn't help falling in love with him."

Evan looked acutely uncomfortable.

Catherine hurried on to a new topic. "He's a great partner, too," Catherine continued, smiling briefly at Vincent. "He backs me up, he thinks of things I don't, and he's got advantages that come in very handy. And there's just something about sharing a secret. I feel so, I don't know, *privileged* sometimes, to be in his confidence." Vincent stirred at that, shaking his head. She smiled at him, tightening her grip on his hand. "He's this amazing guy, and he trusts me with information that could totally destroy him."

"The only thing that could destroy me," Vincent said quietly, "is losing you."

"You are so romantic," she breathed.

"Nope. Just stating a fact," he answered, almost as quietly.

It was hard to tear herself away from the look in his eyes, but she was distantly aware of Evan sitting across the table, trying to find something else to look at. Shaking off the spell, she sat up straighter and switched her attention. "So that's my worst fear. Our worst fears. How about you?"

"My worst fear," Evan replied slowly, facing her once more, "was that this mysterious creature would end up killing you. I didn't credit it with anything more than animal instincts."

"I know. But Vincent's not going to hurt me. He protects me. Especially when he's that 'creature' you were worried about."

"When he kills people, you mean."

Vincent looked down at that, but Catherine nodded. "Yes. But not only that. You remember my car accident, after Dad's wedding?"

Both men winced at the memories.

"Well, I've pieced together what must have happened - you both saved me. Evan, I know I told you something about crawling out of the car, but that wasn't the truth. I was unconscious in the driver's seat when Vincent got there. And the car doors were locked, maybe jammed from the wreck, too, I don't know. Normal guys would have needed a lot of time and equipment to get to me. But Vincent... changed, and got a lot stronger, and he just ripped that car door off."

Evan was staring at Vincent, eyes widened in realization. "The report, later, said the car door was found in the bushes on the side of the road. They couldn't explain how it got there."

Vincent nodded, looking sheepish. "Yeah. I threw it. I can't remember things clearly, and I wasn't thinking real straight, but I know I was desperate to get to Catherine. Nothing else mattered."

"And then," Catherine continued, "he carried me out of the car. Vincent, you were more rational than you give yourself credit for. You did the best you could do, but there was only so much you could do – so you put me down on the road so that others could help me in ways that you couldn't."

"I still shouldn't have moved you out of that seat; I realized it later. I needed to hold you, but if you'd had neck or back injuries..."

"No, it was the best thing you could have done," Evan said, unexpectedly. "Seconds counted, and I couldn't have performed roadside surgery with her still in the car."

Vincent considered that. "Maybe." He still didn't look convinced.

She reached over to squeeze his hand, needing to touch him. "Medical what-ifs aside, the point I was *trying* to make, is - in that situation, I was totally helpless. Unconscious. And Vincent's instinctive reaction was to help me, not hurt me. It always will be."

Vincent looked at her intently, and she met his gaze, hoping that her words would get through to him. Slowly, he relaxed. "Yeah. I guess it will."

Evan thought that over. "Well, I can see that I have nothing to fear in that regard." He turned to look at Vincent. "Vincent, you're a decent man, must as it pains me to admit it. Today, for instance, you had no reason to help me out at all. You were protecting Catherine, yes, but you still chose to treat me well. Far better than I treated you. If you'd been the type of vigilante everyone was talking about, you'd have just ripped my throat out and been done with it."

Vincent slowly smiled. "Well, like I said, it was tempting." Catherine smacked him on the arm, and he grinned. "But I'm glad I resisted. You're a decent guy, yourself. Great taste in women, too."

They were all able to smile at that, though Evan's smile faded quickly. "So that's that, then."

Cat nodded. "Pretty much. Evan, you've been a great friend, and yeah, I was attracted to you. You are attractive, as an endless string of women could testify. But my reaction to Vincent was just so much more intense. Please be my friend, Evan." She paused, then added lightly, "You know I was well over the three-month limit, anyway. You should be happy to be rid of me."

"Yes, I'm sure I'll see it that way sometime soon. Not quite there yet, but you've clearly made your choice and I have to respect that." His smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but it was a brave effort. "So, moving on, what's the best thing to do now? You've got the world convinced that the vigilante died in that warehouse – I presume I have JT to thank for that little DNA switch?"

"Yeah," Catherine confirmed. "Although he might not have been able to pull it off if I hadn't been there to distract you."

"He was acting so bizarrely." Evan grinned. "Glad that I don't have to worry about his mental stability any longer."

"Oh, I don't know about that," Vincent muttered.

"His mental health is excellent," Cat mock-scolded him, then turned to include Evan. "It's his ulcer I'm worried about."

Evan smiled. "Be that as it may - Vincent, I have to assume that even though you're dead twice over, you'll still be involved with cases and protecting Catherine and scattering your DNA all over the place."

"Yeah, probably," Vincent acknowledged. "That was the weak part of the plan. At least it calmed down the uproar. So what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking you could do with a co-conspirator in the police morgue. Someone who would be willing to swear that there was nothing odd going on at all. Someone who can corrupt his own samples, which would no doubt be beneficial to JT's ulcer."

Cat laughed. "No doubt."

Evan grinned at her, then turned more serious. "Muirfield are still hunting you, Vincent. I'm not saying it will be easy, watching you and Cat, but I've been making things difficult for you two, causing such a fuss about the cross-species DNA. I'd like to make up for that."

Catherine studied him intently, then turned towards Vincent. "I think that would be really helpful. Is Evan hopelessly compromised, or could he go back to work and pretend nothing's happened?"

Vincent frowned, thinking.

"Also, I've already talked to JT about continuing my research – if you've no objection. We may be able to figure out what they've done to you. Not saying there'll be a cure, but I'm sure you'd like to be able to better control the process."

"We can get Tess and JT in on this, too," Catherine suggested. "Between all of us we should be able to come up with a plan."

Vincent settled back into his chair. " Yeah, that'd be good. We might even be able to make it work. We could definitely use your help, since you're willing to give it. You sure about this, Evan? You're still on Muirfield's radar. It would be risky."

Evan smiled. "So would running away be, leaving all my things and my friends. And I've been reliably informed that some risks are worth it. Helping you out – doing my bit to help you protect Cat – that would be worth it."

The End

A/N Did the characters' dialog sound right? I'm wasn't sure, in some places. So, please let me know and tell me what your favorite bit was! (Or least favorite, if you hated it grin ). Thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapters – I really enjoyed reading your comments, and good reviews inspire me to write more. Just sayin'. ;)

This really is the end of the "conversations" series. If I were to continue this AU from here (which I am not currently planning to do), it'd be more A-plot and action and not quite so much conversing, so it'd have to have its own story. And it would get harder to write; I'm loving the way the show's writers have multiple plots going on all at the same time, but that's a lot more work.

Not to mention, I haven't actually seen ep 22 yet g I just started watching BatB a few weeks ago; my daughter and I have been catching up (should we watch a 4th ep tonight? Sure, why not, tomorrow's Saturday… um, okay, it's already Saturday, but we're still good, press play!). But I know I'm headed for a cliffhanger and the show doesn't come back til October. Not in a hurry to get to the point where there are no new episodes to watch.

Anyway, thanks for reading! No point in me writing without people to read it, so you are definitely the reason I'm here.


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